Friday, August 27, 2010

Here is another microwave dish. This time its a sweet.
Very simple, few ingredients makes this dish very simple to make. Overall it probably takes about 1/2 hour to get this dish ready! And I am sure everyone will like it and enjoy it.
I used ricotta cheese and evaporated milk with pineapple and cashew nut powder to make this simple fruity sweet.
I used very approximate quantities, adjust it, increase or decrease to your liking.

In a big microwave bowl, Mix all the ingredients together (except butter) and whisk well.
Put it into microwave on high for about 10 minutes. Take out and mix well. After the first 10 minutes, I took it out every 5 minutes for the next 2 times to mix and again every 2 minutes.
Mix in the butter and put it into microwave again. You will see that the mix well get thicker and change color to light brown and crumby. When you mix it, it becomes smooth again. Do this till it gets thick and you think it will hold shape.
Spread onto a butter greased pan to about 1/2 inch thick. Let it cool and cut into pieces. Serve and Enjoy!!!

I am not very big microwave user, tho I do use on a daily basis to reheat dishes, but not for preparing a whole dish in it. On top of that, that here we can use it only use it only as a microwave and not as a oven too. In that way I like the Indian 2 in 1 microwaves, use it even for baking. Isn't that great, conserving space too.
As I was thinking what to make using a microwave, I came up with 2 dishes which are both going to Srivalli's Microwave Cooking- Potluck Party.

The first one is a simple appetizer, which can be made using a variety of ingredients and also has a Mexican touch to it. I am sure everyone will enjoy it.
But you what guys...I don't know what to name it??...

This idea I got from a friend. She had made something like this before, I just added a few more ingredients to it!
Its very simple to make. You can always keep all your ingredients ready before the guest arrive and pop them into the microwave when they have arrived!

Into eash scoop, put a few black beans. Top it with the salsa and the jalapeno slice. Sprinkle it with the shredded cheese. Pop it into the microwave for about 30 sec or till the cheese melts. Garnish with Sour cream and chopped spring onions and Serve. Enjoy!!!

Tip: You can make your own salsa or any kind of dip, I have some posted on this blog!
You can use other ingredients like, onion, fresh cilantro, fresh tomatoes etc.,.
Just don't make it way before you are to eat it, cos the chip will get soft and soggy with the salsa or the dip!!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Semiya Payasam is one of the easiest sweet dish made during any festival, the other one being 'Ravva kesari'. There are many different ways this is made along with different ingredients like kovva, mavva, condensed milk, evaporated milk are involved in making this dish taste as yummy as possible.
Here I made it in the simplest way possible with very few ingredients too.
I used pre-roasted vermicelli, but if you dont't find that in your grocery store, just dry roast the vermicelli and store it or do it just before you make the payasam or better yet roast it in a few drop of ghee!!
I also used whole milk..whats better than payasam with whole milk!!:)

In a pan, heat ghee and saute the cashew nuts and raisins to golden brown. Remove and keep aside.
In the same pan, Bring the milk to a boil and add the roasted semiya. Stirring gently from time to time, let the semiya get cooked in the milk before adding the sugar. After adding sugar, let it boil away for a few minutes and get slightly thicker in consistency, to the way you like it. Stir in the powdered cardamom, roasted cashew nut and raisins.
Serve hot. Enjoy!!!

Tip: If the payasam becomes thick after cooling, add little amount or milk and reheat again, either in microwave of stove top.

One of my favorite festival dish! I like the sweet inner filling paired with coconut and lentils with the soft crunchy outer layer.
This year I didn't make many dishes as I would make every year, just made a few and I didn't want to miss out on 'Poornam Boorelu'.
There are a few modifications made by my Mom, which I follow. Usually, the outer layer is made of urad daal and rice soaked together and ground, but for a crunchy outer layer instead of whole rice, I used rice flour.
Rest of the recipe if almost similar the actual recipe..:)
Its a little time consuming dish and I won't call it easy, but it's not difficult to make it and once you have made it for the first time, I am sure it will be easy the second time around.
There are some problems you may encounter such as, the outer layer becoming hard or not staying on the sweet ball, so stick close to the recipe as much as possible and you should be fine.

Ingredients:

1 cup Urad daal, Minapa pappu, soaked overnight and ground to a thick batter
1 cup rice flour, use little more if necessary
some water
pinch of salt

Soak pesar pappu and chanaga pappu together for about an hour.
You can either cook them in a pressure cooker for one whistle or cook it directly on the stove top. Mash it a bit when cooked.
In a pan, melt jaggery with some water.
Add the cooked pappu to the jaggery and let it come together, become thick. Stir in the cardamom powder. If you think its not sweet enough, add some more jaggery. Finally stir in the grated coconut and let it become thick.
Let this cool down so that you can handle it by hand.

To the ground Urad daal, add the rice flour and mix it to a thick batter consistency using some water if required. Add a pinch of salt to the batter.

When the sweet mixture is cold enough to handle by hand, make small golf size balls and keep aside.
Bring the oil to hot, as hot as when you drop in a little batter, it should immediately come up. Since the inner stuffing is already cooker, its only the outer layer which should get cooked and browned, and this won't take much time.
Take each ball and dip it into the batter and slowly drop into the oil. Cook till outer layer is browned. Remove onto a paper napkin. Serve hot or warm. Enjoy!!!

Tip: Always be careful when handling hot oil. Keep distance when dropping into oil, if you are a beginner.
Store in a air tight container, in the fridge for 3-4 days. Warm in the Microwave when required.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Here is a twist on the regular masala dosa you find in restuarants. I am not sure if this is a listed item on every Udipi restuarants in USA, but it is surely listed here in our restuarant. It called Sping Dosa. With the regular masala dosa you get just plain potato curry. The twist with the spring dosa is that, its a crispy dosa with potato curry which has fresh tomatoes, peas, crunchy onions and crispy carrots. Its folded like shown in the picture and cut like shown in the picture. :)
Its very simple to make so guys, try it out sometime when you have a chance. It also a good way to have your kids eat their veggies too. It can be served with sambar and chutney.
This is more like a leftover dosa for me...by that I mean, I had some mashed potato curry left in the fridge and dosa batter. So I made this for breakfast!!!:)

Heat few drops of oil in a pan. Add the chopped carrots and peas with some salt. Let cook for a minute. Add the potato curry into the same pan. Saute till hot. Turn of the heat and add the tomatoes and coriander. Keep this aside.

Make a dosa on your tawa or dosa pan. Wait till it browns on the other side and has become crispy. Now add the potato mixture in the middle from one end to the other, keeping the same thickness all thru. Now tri-fold it. Cut diagonally, one or 2 times. Serve hot with chutney and sambar. Enjoy!!!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

My husband starts asking for these if its been a while that he ate them. I even pack these for his lunch, as packing a dosa would not be possible, it would just become hard or soggy!. But uttapams will hold their shape better and stay like uttapams till lunch time. I don't make them too big, thats the reason I called them MINI. I used a small omlete pan with a cover.
I used the dosa batter itself, but dosa batter when made into uttapams I feel become sticky as they are little thick, thicker than a dosa. So this is what I did today...I added little bit to rice flour, sooji and yogurt to some dosa batter, whisked it into a thick batter, used this uttapams. Adding sooji and rice will let them hold their shape and taste for longer and even stay crispier.
For the topping, I only used onions, jeera, green chillies, coriander leaves and grated carrot, but any other topping can also be used like ginger, tomato, scallions etc.,.
They are simple and easy to make and dont take very long to be created!!!:))

Whisk the dosa batter, salt, sooji, lemon juice, yogurt & rice flour with some water into a thick batter.
Heat the pan with few drops of oil. Spoon 2 laddles full of batter into the pan. It will spread and take the shape of the pan. Add the onions, jeera, carrot, green chilli and coriander on the top. Put a few drops of oil and cover for a minute on medium to low heat. After a minute, remove cover and check if its brown underside by lifting a edge. Flip over and let cook for 30 sec or till it starts to brown. You don't want the onions to burn!!!
Remove on a plate. Serve hot with idli chutney, alam pachadi or any other chutney and sambar too. Enjoy!!!

If your kids like peas as much as my kids do, then this is the way to go!!
I feel like I am making this dish almost every other day and actually feeling good about it since my kids are eating it up!!...
Well I know why they are eating it up..its because there is nothing in it except some flavoring, peas and rice.....nothing for them to pull out and say ' I dont like this clove or cinamon!!'
The key is flavoring in powdered form. I have added some garam masala and a little bit of idli podi or chutney powder in the dish. Garam masala gives the fried rice taste and chutney powder give the sweet and sour to the dish!!! Thats it!! so simple...try it with any vegetable and I am sure it will be a HIT! I have tried it with lima beans too...I made it with no spice at all....you can always try it otherwise!
What better than making it with leftover rice too for a quick lunch!!??

Heat oil in a pan, add the onions and curry leaves. After the onions cook a little, add the ginger-garlic paste and saute. Later add the rice along with the peas and saute them in. Add the chutney powder, turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala and mix it all in. Since rice is already cook and peas don't take much time to cook, you need to keep it on heat only for a few minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander if required. Serve hot with raita or yogurt. Enjoy!!!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I made these last week, but didn't find any time to post it. So today I am making sure I find some time to post it. :)
When ever I make bread to try to make, I want to make just enough that it would be finished that same day. And how much I love eating fresh bread!!!
I kept looking for recipes which would yield a smaller quantity and total vegetarian recipe that too. I followed the recipe comepletely from here, but made changes to it but made all the ingredients lesser in quantity, and more important than that, I used the food processor only and no hands, so it was very easy. The whole process took only about couple of hours including the resting time for the dough.
The pav or rolls did come out amazingly soft. My kids gobbled them up in less than couple of hours.

Ingredients:

2 cups + 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp active dried yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar (honey can also be used instead)
1/2 to 3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp butter, softened
1 tbsp melted butter for brushing on the pav
less than a tsp of olive oil or any other oil used at home

Method:

Add the flour, yeast, salt and sugar into the food processor. Run it on pulse for about 5 times. Heat milk in a small pan with the butter till little more than warm but not very hot!!.. Add this into the food processor and run it till it completely forms into a dough. The dough should be very soft, not very sticky or gooey. If needed scrape the sides of the food processor and run it again for atleast 5 min. Add a bit of flour if needed. Remove this into a bowl, shape into a ball, lightly rub with oil, so that it doesn't dry out, leave covered in a warm dry place for about an hour.
After an hour, punch it down, shape into small balls, place in a greased and dusted pan, about an inch apart. Leave covered for 1/2 hour in a warm place.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 10 min or until it starts to brown. Remove and brush with butter on the top and put it back into the oven for another couple of minutes. They should be perfectly browned and done.
Serve warm with a condiment of your choice, or if you like fresh bread like I do...eat it up just like that...:) Enjoy!!!